A shock comic, a gambler, a couple of exotic dancers, and Nicolas Cage all make appearances in part one of the Top 10 Films of 2021 – not to mention a singing puppet baby. On this week's show, it's "The Outliers," the films that only Adam or Josh deemed Top 10-worthy. Next week, they'll be joined by the Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips and Dana Stevens of Slate for part two and the 'consensus' best films of the year.

0:00 - Billboard

1:15 - Top 10 of 2021: The Outliers

Jimmy Montague, "70th Avenue Hustle"

45:09 - Golden Brick Finalists

48:50 - Top 10 of 2021: The Outliers, cont.

1:13:20 - Outro

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The end-of-year conversation starts this week as Adam and Josh talk through their Chicago Film Critics Association ballots, naming their favorite 20 or so performances of the 2021 movie year. Plus reviews of LICORICE PIZZA, Paul Thomas Anderson's nostalgia trip to 70s-era San Fernando Valley, and NIGHTMARE ALLEY, a nasty new noir from Guillermo del Toro.

0:00 - Billboard

1:14 - Best Performances of 2021

Taj Mahal, "Tomorrow May Not Be Your Day"

48:16 - Review: "Nightmare Alley"

1:03:20 - Next Week / Polls / Notes

1:13:06 - Review: "Licorice Pizza"

1:30:38 - Outro / Outtake

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Jane Campion’s filmography is one of the greatest collections of woman-led features in the history of the medium, which makes her latest - THE POWER OF THE DOG - such a startling exception. Set in 1925 against a forbidding Montana landscape, Campion’s film takes place in an utterly masculine domain, with Benedict Cumberbatch’s snarling rancher as the film’s primary focus. But armed with the just-completed Campion Oeuvre-view, Adam and Josh see what is undoubtedly a Campion movie, with its attention finely tuned to gender power dynamics and competing displays of masculinity. They also agree that Campion’s latest is a masterpiece. The Campion love continues in the second half of the show with “We Are The Campions,” the end of Oeuvre-view awards for favorite performances and scenes—and Adam and Josh’s ranked lists of the director’s eight features.

0:00 - Billboard

1:04 - Review: "The Power of the Dog"

Michael Nyman, "The Sacrifice"

36:04 - Next Week / Notes

49:41 - Massacre Theatre

55:58 - Jane Campion Oeuvre-view: Awards

1:29:58 - Outro

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When it was announced that Steven Spielberg was mounting a new film adaptation of the classic Broadway musical WEST SIDE STORY, it was entirely reasonable to ask, "Why?" Why a new film adaptation and why Spielberg. The 1961 "West Side," directed by Robert Wise, was a Best Picture-winner and is regarded as one of the great movie musicals of all time. Also? Spielberg has never directed a musical. And yet, as revered as that 1961 adaptation is, it is not without its faults, notably the casting of white actors as Latinx characters and a pair of romantic leads (Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer) who don't sing and are arguably the weakest members of an otherwise ace cast. Adam and Josh make the case that with his thrilling new adaptation, Spielberg more than answers the why, without necessarily fixing all of the earlier film's weaknesses. Plus, a review of Sean Baker's latest, RED ROCKET, which has Simon Rex's former adult film star making an ignominious return to his Texas hometown.

0:00 - Billboard

1:06 - Review: "West Side Story"

"Cool" ("West Side Story," Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

41:44 - Next Week / Notes

47:22 - Polls

57:02 - Review: "Red Rocket"

1:14:36 - Outro 

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'Tis the season for awards-bait movies based on real lives, so for this week's holiday review roundup, Adam and Josh discuss Ridley Scott's true-crime drama HOUSE OF GUCCI (aka House of Accents), the Lin-Manuel Miranda biographical musical drama TICK, TICK...BOOM!, Kristen Stewart's turn as Lady Di in Pablo Larrain's biopic-as-horror-film SPENCER, and the new bio-doc KURT VONNEGUT: STUCK IN TIME. Plus, the final list of nominees for the 2021 Golden Brick Award, including recommendations for THE KILLING OF TWO LOVERS, TEST PATTERN, SHIVA BABY, and NINE DAYS.

0:00 - Billboard

1:03 - Review Roundup

Original Broadway Cast, "Rent"

31:36 - Next Week / Notes

44:25 - Massacre Theater

51:39 - Golden Brick Nominees

1:12:29 - Outro / Outtake

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For her debut as a director, actor Rebecca Hall takes Nella Larsen’s 1929 novella about race and identity and turns it into a meditation on the many ways that people “pass” as a means of denying or disguising the truth. Adam and Josh praise the film as a showcase for stars Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson, and for Hall's emergence of a gifted new filmmaker. Adam wasn’t able to make the weekend’s big release, Marvel’s ETERNALS, but Josh did and was pleased to find plenty of director Chloé Zhao in the film’s bloated running time. Unfortunately, Zhao’s Malickian instincts are forced to compete with the leaden necessities of the franchise. Plus the final film in the Jane Campion Oeuvre-view, 2009's BRIGHT STAR, with Campion bringing an uncharacteristic gentleness to her story of the great love and last years of poet John Keats.

0:00 - Billboard

1:15 - Review: "Passing"

Leonard Cohen, "Suzanne"

30:23 - Josh: "Eternals"

37:02 - Next Week / Notes

47:51 - Polls

57:36 - Jane Campion #7: "Bright Star"

1:21:38 - Outro / Outtake 

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Edgar Wright's latest, LAST NIGHT IN SOHO, is another opportunity for the director of "Baby Driver" and "Shaun of the Dead" to bring his visual panache, comic verve, and impeccable musical taste to a genre he clearly adores. Like the films that inspired it, Wright's time-hopping giallo picture – set in both contemporary London and the city in its swinging '60s heyday – takes some nasty turns. But Adam and Josh disagree about whether Wright's film is a thrill-ride that continually upends expectations—or an incoherent jumble of influences. And the Jane Campion Oeuvre-view arrives at the director's own divisive genre film, the 2003 erotic thriller IN THE CUT. Largely dismissed at the time, Adam and Josh make the case that the Meg Ryan-starring film deserves another look.

0:00 - Billboard

1:07 - Review: "Last Night in Soho"

The Kinks, "Starstruck"

26:29 - Chicago Critics Film Festival Preview

34:06 - Next Week / Notes

41:42 - Massacre Theatre

47:13 - Campion #6: "In The Cut"

1:09:45 - Outro 

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Welcome to the Wes Anderson deep end.

Adam and Josh sit down to discuss Anderson's latest, THE FRENCH DISPATCH, the densest, most intricate, and maybe most melancholy of his career. There's also that cast, with standout performances from Jeffrey Wright, Benecio del Toro, and Bill Murray. Adam and Josh also share their Anderson Ranked lists and revisit their 2017 Sacred Cow review of RUSHMORE.

0:00 - Billboard

1:03 - Review: "The French Dispatch"

Sex Bob-Omb, "We Are Sex Bob-Omb"

35:43 - Polls

50:24 - Next Week / Notes

59:47 - Wes Anderson Ranked

1:15:53 - FS Revisited: "Rushmore" (Sacred Cow, 2017)

1:47:13 - Outro

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The worst kept secret about Denis Villeneuve's DUNE is that it's only half a movie. Or half a story, anyway. Villeneuve split Frank Herbert's classic sci-fi novel in two, with part one offering a stunningly detailed and impressively cast setup to a conclusion we may not see for years. Adam and Josh admire the film's craft, but they were left with more questions than answers about how the new adaptation will reckon with the source material's 20th-century origins. Plus, the Jane Campion Oeuvre-view continues with 1999's HOLY SMOKE, a critical and box office failure on its release that contains a remarkable early Kate Winslet performance and the complicated sex and gender dynamics we've come to expect from Campion.

0:00 - Billboard

1:01 - Review: "Dune"

Neil Diamond, "Holly Holy"

33:05 - Next Week / Notes

41:23 - Massacre Theatre

47:07 - Campion #5: "Holy Smoke"

1:09:31 - Outro 

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In five films over 15 years, Daniel Craig has established himself as the pre-eminent Bond. But will he also prove to be the final 007? The 60-year-old franchise has its work cut out for it, finding someone to fill Craig's shoes and bringing the iconic, if archaic, character firmly into the 21st century. Adam and Josh agree that the new NO TIME TO DIE does right by Craig—but does that make it a good Bond film? They take their review into spoiler territory to unravel their feelings about the conclusion of the Craig era. Plus, the fourth film in the Jane Campion Oeuvre-view, 1996's THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY, Campion's inventive and emotionally volatile adaptation of the Henry James novel. Plus Josh recommends the new Nordic horror film LAMB.

0:00 - Billboard

1:14 - Review: "No Time To Die"

32:56 - "No Time" Spoiler Talk

Wojciech Kilar, "Pearl in the Crown"

39:32 - Josh recommends: "Lamb"

43:29 - Next Week / Notes

56:32 - Polls

1:04:40 - Jane Campion #4: "The Portrait of a Lady"

1:35:00 - Outro

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